Western sanctions are aimed at regime change in Russia – Lavrov

The ultimate goal of the anti-Russian sanctions imposed by some Western nations is to stir public protests and oust the government, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

“Western leaders
publicly state that the sanctions must hurt [Russia's] economy
and stir up public protests. The West doesn’t want to change
Russia’s policies. They want a regime change. Practically nobody
denies that,” he told a leading think-tank in Moscow.

Lavrov said that the tensions between Russia and the West had
been brewing for years before the Ukrainian crisis, adding that
now the Europeans had decided to go for all-or-nothing and play
chicken with Russia. But at least the positions have been made
clear, Lavrov said.

‘Ideology blinds Europe’

Russia and the EU are having a moment of truth focused on
Ukraine, Lavrov said, but stressed that Moscow would not be the
one to break off ties with Europe. However, Russia won't simply
go back to how things were before the crisis hit, he said.

“The EU is our largest partner," Lavrov said.
"Nobody is going to shoot himself in the foot and reject
cooperation with Europe, but everyone understands that it won’t
be business as usual anymore.

“But we don’t need the kind of business we had. [That] was
like ‘Russia must do this and must do that,' and we want to
cooperate as equals,” he added.

He laid the blame for the escalation on an “aggressive minority”
among EU nations, who pursue ideologically-driven grabs of power
in eastern Europe, including Ukraine, instead of focusing on the
serious problems that Europe is facing due to the turmoil across
the Mediterranean in North Africa and the Middle East.

“Exporting any kind of ideology, whether it is democratic or
communist or any other kind, won’t do any good,” he warned.

Ideology blinds Europeans to some problems, which Russia believes
need to be solved, Lavrov said. For example, EU officials are
reluctant to speak about the persecution of Christians by Muslim
militants in Iraq and Syria or elsewhere, because they fear that
this would be perceived as politically incorrect. Meanwhile there
is a growing Christianophobia in the world, he said.

“Most of EU members avoid discussing this issue. They are
ashamed to pronounce it as they were ashamed to put a phrase
acknowledging the Christian roots of Europe into the EU
Constitution,” Lavrov said. “If you don’t remember and
don’t respect your own roots and traditions, how can you respect
the traditions of other people?”

‘Russia not anti-American’

Lavrov blamed the US for claiming global leadership at a time
when both its resources and leadership skills are in decline.
Particularly, he said, Washington is increasingly tuning its
policies with electoral cycles, as long-term goals are sacrificed
for short-term gains of popularity among voters.

“We cannot accept the position of those who tell us: ‘Put up
with it. Everyone has to suffer from America having elections
every two years, and nothing should be done about it. Relax and
take it as a given’. This won’t do. We won’t take it because the
stakes are too high,” Lavrov said.

He added that while some take Russia’s opposition to America’s
global influence as anti-Americanism, this is not the case.

“It’s not about anti-Americanism or forming some sort of
anti-American coalition. It’s about the natural desire of an
increasing number of nations to ensure their vital interests and
doing it in a way they see right, not the way they are being told
by a foreign party,” he said.

If the US pursues leadership not out of a false perception that
it has a God-given burden to take responsibility for everybody,
but by developing the skill to form a consensus, Moscow would be
the first to back Washington, Lavrov said.

But now Washington is bullying other nations into toeing their
line, and few dare to object publicly out of fear of reprisal,
while complaining in private, he added.